dining like witches and wizards

as many of you already know, one of my top reasons for coming to oxford was the magic and allure of harry potter. many parts from all the different films have been shot here at different colleges in oxford. for instance, one of the bigger colleges Christ Chuch, has a massive gorgeous dining hall, that so happens to be the Hogwarts dining hall.

but what's really awesome is that all 39 of the colleges at oxford are designed in the same way, so even the colleges where no major filming was done (i.e. my college), there is still very much a resemblance and a trace of the potter magic. all of the dining halls, including mine, have three long tables (that is the difference, for hp they had to add an artificial fourth table because of the four houses), where the students sit, and then at the front of the dining hall there is usually a raised platform with a another long table for the senior members of the the university (professors and such)...although i know you are all loving this as much as i am, i will get on to why this is relevant. last night was our first formal dinner, and it rocked. every day there is lunch and dinner served in the dining hall and then two nights a week (wednesday and friday), there is formal hall. everyone dresses up, gets served delicious food, has cocktails, and all for a great low price. also, almost everyone in the college goes to formal hall about once a week, so it makes for quite a good time. last night was actually just for the visiting students, so there were only the 30 of us, but the food was delicious and i can assure you that this was one of the times i have felt closest to harry (below is a picture of chuck, chris, and i at dinner).after dinner, we went downstairs to our college pub (that's right, as if there isn't already a billion pubs, every college also has their own), chilled and chatted with english folk and then went to another pub called the Turf Tavern (the first pic is just a bunch of random people at the college pub and the next one is of chris, mariel, and i at the Turf).

all in all it was yet another fun night, but the best part was certainly being able to dine like mr. potter...